Along Our Twisted Path
by ambiguously
Summary: (Set after SW:Rebels "ToTA" and "AWBW") Ahsoka steps out of the World Between Worlds, but not into the galaxy she remembers.


Ahsoka made her way through the portal and back into the Sith temple. She expected the room to be in chaos, still collapsing around her. Instead, she found ruins, as though her battle with Ana... her battle with Darth Vader had happened months or years before.

She was full of questions. So much had happened in so short a time. They'd come to this planet less than a day ago in their search for knowledge: three lost children who, put together and on a good day, might scrape by as one full Jedi. The Inquisitors had come, and Maul had returned, and Vader had followed. One full Jedi wouldn't have been a match for all of them, and it had not been a good day even before Kanan's catastrophic injury. Ahsoka had pushed her friends to safety, and in return, Ezra had pulled her free, but he'd been an older Ezra full of confusion and grief even though moments before, she'd seen a boy of sixteen.

Had she returned to his time, years after she left? The dust and rubble around her, long settled, suggested she had.

She wandered through the ruined temple. The Dark Side curled and pawed from the shadows at her passing light. She held no fear of it. She reached out with the Force, seeking other lives here, and when she found none but insects, searching beyond this dead planet. The Inquisitors, Maul, Vader, they had all died or fled, leaving her here alone. She would need to make her way back to the Rebellion, back to her friends. Perhaps one of her enemies had left behind a ship she could use.

It only took her an hour to find the ship, but it wasn't one she was expecting. Maul had traveled here before them, searching for the holocron. As she paced around the Mandalorian ship, a cheap transport rather than the zippy fighters he normally preferred, she knew this had to be how he arrived. This ship was still in good condition. A few quick repairs, and she'd be aloft. But Maul had been trapped here for years.

Scavenging for the parts she needed, Ahsoka stumbled across a far more confusing find. She was familiar enough with Zabrak physiology to recognize the top half of one's skeleton, even if the bottom metal half wasn't a dead giveaway. His neck had broken.

She told herself it must have been in one of the fights. She'd left Kanan to deal with him, and Kanan had made it alive to the top of the temple. Maul must have perished in battle with him. But why the ship, and where were the Inquisitors' ships, and how long had she been gone that the insects scuttling across the ground had rendered him to this dry, fleshless state?

The repairs weren't difficult. She started the engine as soon as she finished. For a moment, she considered lingering another hour and burying the wretched pile of bones. Instead she blasted the engines and took off.

There wasn't much fuel left. She limped her way to the closest hyperspace lane, double-checking all the calculations. She'd get one good jump. It had to count.

* * *

This was all wrong.

Ahsoka had never set foot on this planet before. She'd swear to that under any oath she was given. She couldn't say that things were different than they had been before she'd vanished because she'd never been here. Yet she knew even before she saw the obvious signs. The Imperial credits she had with her were no good. "We only accept Republic creds," said the shopkeep, when she went to purchase a meal. "That some kind of Confederacy scrip?" He glared at her with all three eyes.

Ahsoka dropped the credits into a pocket. "No. I bought dinner at the last station. I guess the waiter passed me bad credits for my change." She rolled her eyes dramatically. It hid the worry. She wandered to a HoloNews feed. This was a local feed, concerned with the nearby systems. There was a murderer on the loose, last seen headed to Zygerria. The magistrate of the Sevari system was under investigation for fraud. At the bottom, Ahsoka read the scroll: another skirmish on Saleucami, victory for the Republic amid heavy losses.

Water was free. She accepted a cup and took a seat, watching the impossible news flicker by. Confederacy forces had solidified their hold on Hutt Space.

But the Separatists had been defeated years ago, falling apart like a stack of children's blocks at the first motion of the Empire's long arm. The date scrolled by at the end of the mini feed. She'd thought she had stepped into the future, the same time as Ezra had pulled her free. She'd started to suspect her trip through the World Between Worlds had somehow dropped her into the past, although that wouldn't explain Maul's body.

The date was only three days after they had arrived on Malachor. No time had passed, and none had been walked back.

This was very, very wrong.

* * *

She sold Maul's ship for credits that were good here, and with some regret, she passed off her Imperial money to unobservant traders. Neither was enough to get her all the way to Alderaan, not without influencing the ship's captain. A Jedi would never pass counterfeit credits nor use her powers to push someone into helping her, but if Ahsoka was not a Jedi back where she came from, she was even less of one here.

She read voraciously along the trip, putting her hands on news feeds and any history reels she could locate. The ship's library was sparse, and its HoloNet feed spotty. From what she pieced together, the war had never ended. The Jedi Order had been disbanded, and she grieved all over again as she found stale, bloodless reports of the execution orders which had gone out. But there was no Empire, and the names of many Jedi scrolled by listed as still wanted by the Republic, which meant they lived. She didn't dare search for anyone in particular in case the query tripped an alert, but her heart relaxed in relief as name after name she knew passed across the screen.

She disembarked at the space port closest to the palace. If Ahsoka had been the Fulcrum on which the Rebellion's recruitment tilted, Bail Organa had been the strong base she'd stood upon, relied upon, and trusted. He'd known her since childhood. He could help her make sense of this strange new life. All she needed was an audience.

"Asayla Omari, from Shili," she said to the reception droid. "Senator Organa and I met on Coruscant. He said I should visit should I find myself in the sector."

"The Senator is away. He will not be back for several days."

"I see. May I ask for a communication to be sent to him? I'm sure he'd want to see me."

The reception droid made no comment. She was glad. An organic receptionist, hearing the growing desperation in her voice, would have made the assumption Asayla was the Senator's mistress, and that thought was too horrible to consider even as a ploy to see her friend.

A boy came out of the doors, heading somewhere with a preoccupied air. He saw her and stopped dead. "Hi."

"Hello," Ahsoka said, pouncing on the opportunity. "I'm here to see Senator Organa. We're friends."

"He's not here." The boy came closer, staring at her intently. He was about Ezra's age, sixteen or so, with blond hair and eyes that reminded her so strongly of Anakin's gaze that she almost flinched. She'd seen Anakin's eye as they'd fought, and it had been filled with anger.

"Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Yes." He turned to the droid. "She can come in with me."

The droid bowed. "Yes, Your Highness."

Ahsoka stopped still, then she followed the boy back through the ornate doorway. He turned as soon as the door was closed. "You're Ahsoka Tano, right?"

She nodded. "But I'm sorry, I don't know who you are." She did, though. Everything about him said who he was.

"Luke Organa. The Senator is my father. You'd know that if you really knew him." His tone had turned serious. "It's best you didn't say so in front of L9P. He gets tetchy when people lie to him."

"I do know Bail. We've been friends for years. You know who I am."

"I know your name. I've seen your picture. You're supposed to be dead." He turned away. "Come on. Mother will know what to do with you."

That didn't bode well. "Luke, there may be some mistake. I don't think I'm in the right place." Aside from all the rest, the Organas had a daughter, not a son who reminded her so strongly of her former master that it hurt to look at him.

He led her to Queen Breha's office, which Ahsoka had seen only twice. As they came in, there was Leia, right where she ought to be. She let out an annoyed sigh, scolding him, "Luke, now's not a good time."

But the Queen had seen Ahsoka, and she went pinch-faced and pale. "By the Force," she whispered, and nothing else before she swept around her massive desk and took Ahsoka into a welcome hug. Which was nice, although the last they'd spoken, they hadn't been on hugging terms. Ahsoka accepted it anyway.

"How did you survive?" the queen asked her, at last breaking away to stare at her. "We were sure you were dead."

"I'm not sure," Ahsoka said. "It's been a blur. It's good to see you, too."

"Leia, you've seen the holos," said her mother. "This is Ahsoka." To Luke she said, "You recognized her?"

He nodded. "What did you need to tell Father? You can tell us."

She looked at the three of them. She'd always thought Leia favored her mother more then Bail, but with Luke next to her, other features jumped out at her instead. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time. "I've traveled a long way hoping to get some answers. A very long way."

"Where have you been all this time?" asked Breha.

There was only one true answer she could offer. "Malachor."

* * *

She was given a private room in the family suite away from prying eyes. Luke had left her after showing her the way, returning to whatever task he'd been on when they'd met. Leia and their mother had, with some apologies, returned to the fidgety details of state she'd interrupted. She was alone with her thoughts, and her thoughts were no more at ease than they had been. She could come up with excuses about the rest, but the Organas she'd known had only one child, not two. Any doubts Ahsoka had that she was massively displaced from where she ought to be were swept away by the reality of where she was now.

She'd walked out into the wrong world. There was no other explanation.

Leia brought her food after a few hours, and to Ahsoka's surprise, joined her in the meal. "I've heard so many stories about you," she said. "I feel like I know you."

"Likewise."

Leia leapt on that opening. "You said you don't remember how you survived. Luke and I were born around the same time you died. He said you didn't know who he was, but the way you look at me tells me you do know me." Her stare was intense, and Ahsoka understood what she had felt from Luke when they met, the same as she felt from Leia now. The Force moved through both of them. Bail's daughter had been in front of her all this time, and she'd never known the truth.

Perhaps it was time to share truth back.

"I don't belong here."

"No. Coming here may have endangered us, if anyone finds out we're harboring another Jedi. But I'm sure you had your reasons."

Another? "I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to turn. When I say I don't belong, I mean I believe I came here through a hole between worlds. I was traveling in an in-between space. I walked out the wrong door." She tried not to think about what that meant for Ezra, or wonder if he had also fallen into a different timeline than he'd left. She forced herself not to picture the dawning worry and sorrow of their friends as time stretched on and he didn't return. She told herself that he must have made it home safely. Any other option was too sad to contemplate, and impossible for her to rectify.

Leia listened, her face drawn carefully blank. A politician's face. In her world, Bail had been training his daughter up to take over his position in the Senate. It seemed she was just as astute here.

"You're telling the truth. I can tell."

"You have the Force. I can tell that, too."

They watched each other. Then Leia nodded. "Luke too. Only a few people know about us."

"I have so many questions for you."

"You will understand if I can't answer many of them. We allowed you in because we thought you were an old friend of our parents, but now you tell me you're someone else."

"I was friends with your father, and you, where I come from. I've only met your mother twice." Another moment, another decision. "In my universe, the Republic has been taken over by an Empire. Your family helps fight against it in secret, funding and supporting the Rebellion."

"And you?"

"I've been working for the Rebellion for years."

Leia smiled, and while Ahsoka had seen her smile before, only now did she read the sarcastic line in the girl's lips that she should have recognized anywhere. "Then you did come to the right place." She turned to the food, which they'd neglected until now. "Eat something. You look famished." She'd brought a selection of food Ahsoka could eat. She'd made herself consume a little food along her voyage, but it wasn't suited to her physiology and had made her ill.

"Thank you. I understand if you don't want to tell me about your rebellion here. I'm not sure I could be of much help. My job was to make contacts and connections, but I don't know anyone here." The people she did know wouldn't know her, or thought she was dead, or might be dead themselves.

"Father will have some ideas. Mother and I were already talking over our plans."

"You said you'd harbored other Jedi."

"A few. Father was known to be friends with several Jedi in the past. A handful have shown up, and we've helped them go into hiding. You know I can't tell you where they are."

"I know. It's enough to know they're safe. In my timeline, I only knew for sure of myself and another Padawan who escaped. I'd like to believe there were other survivors, and I think Master Yoda must have lived, but otherwise anyone with the Force was hunted to extinction."

"It's not much better here," Leia said. "Thousands were killed within a few weeks. I'm sorry."

She couldn't ask about Anakin. If this was his daughter, and the more Ahsoka watched her, the more she was now certain Leia was indeed his child, then that meant he was either dead or turned to darkness. Another name hurt fractionally less. "Master Obi-Wan?"

"Alive. Safe. I've met with him several times."

Emotion shot through her, both relief and joy. She'd never seen a body, and she'd never heard a peep about him since he sent out his warning message to the rest of the survivors. The Obi-Wan she knew was probably dead, but he lived here, and that was enough.

* * *

She woke in darkness, confused at where she was and why her bed was so soft. The events of the last few days settled in her mind and retraced her steps from Malachor to Alderaan. Too much had happened. She had no context for traveling in other universes, certainly not for travel that had been as easy as stepping through a mirror. The easier explanation was that she'd died or was dying, victim to the collapse of the Sith temple, and this was her brain's gift of one last glimpse of a different way the galaxy could have spun.

Dying brains probably didn't get hungry, and they almost surely didn't need to use the 'fresher. Ahsoka took care of the latter need in the private room attached to her borrowed suite, then stepped out into the corridor in search of alleviating her hunger. Sunlight gleamed in through high windows. She must have slept half the morning away. Her body had not been allowed to rest since she'd reached Atollon and clearly had needed the sleep.

This was the family wing. That meant the food she was smelling was in the family dining area. Ahsoka followed the scent of cooked food, soon finding herself in a large but not huge room containing a big table, a sideboard with covered dishes kept warm with contained heaters, and Anakin Skywalker.

He didn't see her at first. He held a mug of caf in one hand, resting both mug and hand on the polished tabletop, and he was reading a datapad held in his other, black-gloved hand. He wasn't young, but neither was she. He would be nearing forty, although he looked like he'd carried the weight of the galaxy on his back for long enough that he'd aged far more in ways she could only guess.

He wasn't a dark lord. He wasn't dead.

Ahsoka stepped into the room. The movement caught his attention, and he looked up at her from where he sat. Dumbfounded, he stared, his eyes taking in the same impossible changes on her face, the growth of her montrals, and the wary stance she fell into by instinct. The datapad fell to the table as he stood.

He didn't say anything, not her name, not a question. Ahsoka broke from his scrutiny to examine the food on offer. There was more meat available than she would have assumed, but she was their guest, and the royal family was nothing if not courteous. She filled a plate with breakfast, and managed to get the dispenser to give her a cup of hot caf, refusing to look at him, forcing her own hands to remain steady as she kept her back to someone who'd nearly murdered her less than a week ago.

She set down her plate opposite to where he sat, keeping the narrow width of the table as a buffer zone. He walked around to her, his shock broken, and before she could sit, Anakin threw his arms around Ahsoka's shoulders.

Ahsoka panicked. The last time she'd seen him, he'd tried to kill her. But this Anakin was holding her, pulling her into his arms like a lifeline, and he was trembling. He wouldn't hurt her. She settled into the embrace.

"Hi."

"We came in early this morning. I had to know if it was really you." He didn't let go. "Rex told me he buried you back on Mandalore." The words fell out in a painful rush. Anakin had always let his emotions rule him. Ahsoka had missed that.

"Did Leia have a chance to talk with you?"

The hug diminished. He pulled away. "She said you're not from this timeline. You walked through a portal from somewhere else." He let out a breath. "Sorry. Do you even know who I am?"

"You were my master, Anakin Skywalker. And you were my best friend."

He smiled, and it was pure Anakin. "Some things haven't changed."

"A lot have, but I'll accept the changes for the better." Her stomach gurgled.

"Eat something, then tell me everything."

He warmed up his caf, taking his spot across from her as she dug into her food. She'd barely tasted her dinner last night, she'd been so caught up in everything. Before that, she'd been on short rations for longer than she cared to remember. She couldn't recall the last time she'd eaten her fill. She did recall the last time she'd eaten a good meal with Anakin. As they fell into their old conversational patterns, it felt like yesterday.

"What happened to me in this timeline?" she asked him after telling him an abridged version of how she'd arrived. Vader was replaced with another Inquisitor in her tale. She left out the names of her friends, and the location of their base. This could all be a trick. She could have been captured instead of killed by Vader, taken by his cronies, strapped to a table for some hellish psychic probe, and given false images of hope to lull her into revealing what she knew about the Rebellion or about other Jedi survivors. She'd put nothing past the Empire.

"It was my fault."

The self-defeat in his voice struck her, and she reached out to cover his hand with hers. "I doubt that. I've met myself. If there was trouble to get into, I'd have found a way all on my own."

"But I sent you on the mission. I asked for your help, and you went, and you died. I'm so sorry."

She pressed her lips together. "I failed you in my timeline, if it's any consolation. You asked for my help, and I went on the mission instead of staying beside you. You fell."

It was as close to the truth as she could bear. Anakin didn't reply. He turned his hand over and clasped hers.

There was a noise from the corridor. Ahsoka's pulse jumped, but before she could pull her hand away and crouch to a ready position, anticipating an attack, Luke walked into the dining room. She watched his eyes flicker to where they held hands. Then he smiled. "Good. You're awake. Is it her?"

Anakin nodded. "Without a doubt. If you reach out with the Force, you should be able to sense her."

Obediently, Luke closed his eyes. Ahsoka felt a light pressure against her mind which flickered and withdrew. "I thought I felt the Force in her before," Luke said. "That's why I brought her inside."

"You're getting better at recognizing other Force users. If your parents agree, I'll take you and Leia the next time I go meet with another Jedi."

Luke's smile grew brighter. "That would be great! I'll tell Leia. She's better at talking them into things." He nodded at Ahsoka. "I'm really glad you're here. Anakin's very happy. I can tell." He grabbed a plate, selected several items, and left with a quick wave.

"Not joining us for breakfast?"

"That's his third breakfast. I remember being his age and eating twice my weight every day, but it's been a long time." Anakin glanced at the doorway where Luke had gone, and the fondness he felt splashed over her.

She followed his gaze. "Anakin?"

"Hm?"

"Do they know?"

He turned to her, wariness flashing over his features. For a moment, she could tell he was about to lie to her, one of those 'certain point of view' things Obi-Wan used to try with them both. Then he shrugged. "They know. I couldn't raise them, not alone, not on the run. They deserved a better life than that. Bail and Breha wanted children for as long as I've known them. You can only make the choices that are in front of you, not the choices you wish you had instead."

Ahsoka wasn't sure how much of the universe she knew overlapped with this one. She knew her own Anakin well enough to make a logical guess at who the twins' mother had been in both timelines. He'd said 'alone.'

"I'm so sorry."

"The kids have grown up safe and loved. That's the most important thing. I can't risk visiting often in case we're discovered. If they're found out, they'd be declared enemies of the Republic just for existing."

She sighed. "Sounds like where I come from." Wistful, she wondered what a happier universe would be like, where people like them weren't hunted down for the crime of being born with these abilities. "You've been training them?"

"When I can. Bail says he's happy to see them better trained in their powers, but he's cautious. If they're caught consorting with Separatists, it doesn't matter if they have powers, they'll still be in a lot of legal trouble."

"Separatists?"

He nodded. Then he frowned. "You're not from here. Things aren't what they were during the war. The surviving Jedi are working with the new Separatists."

Ahsoka shook her head, clearing it of the nonsense. "We were fighting the Separatists."

"It's not the same group. Well, some of it is, but it's more like an open rebellion against the Republic. You've missed a lot."

"That's an understatement."

"It's all right. I'll help you get caught up."

"I appreciate that offer, but I need to focus on getting home."

His face changed. Emotions had never been far from the surface of Anakin's thoughts, and anyone with even half an eye could read them easily in his expressions. His joy at seeing her again whiplashed into disappointment, grief, and even a touch of anger. "Can you go back?"

"I have to try. My friends need me there." Did they, though? Ezra seemed to think she'd died, and the Rebellion had gone on without her.

He reached for her hand again. She let him take it. "We could use your help here, too."

"I told someone I'd see him again. I don't want to break my word without making the attempt."

His fingers twitched. "Him?" he asked her, his voice teasing and something a bit harder underneath.

"He's a friend. And he's just a kid. The last time I saw him, he couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen."

"I could say the same about you."

"I'm not a kid anymore." She hadn't felt like a kid since the day she'd walked away from the Jedi Order. She hadn't been a kid since she started fighting the war.

"Then I guess you should get to make your own decisions about going back to where you came from." He tried to make it a light joke. It almost worked. "Where are we going?"

"We?"

"You're trying to travel between universes, and you don't think I'm going with you to the door? Come on, Snips."

"The entrance I know of is on Lothal. There's an old Jedi Temple there."

"On Lothal." The disbelief on his face was comical. "Of all the backwater planets to leave a dimensional gate, it's on Lothal?"

"What planet did you say you were from again?"

He glared at her, and Ahsoka laughed until he joined her. "Okay. Let's go to Lothal."

* * *

"But it's just Lothal," Luke said to his mother. "It's safe."

"No," said the Queen. Leia fumed beside her brother, but she'd already presented their case. The Leia in the other universe wouldn't resort to pleading after being denied, and neither did the girl here.

Ahsoka stood back. She didn't know these people even if they did resemble old allies. This Anakin wasn't her Anakin, either, and he had a much more complicated relationship with the little family than she could ever have imagined.

He said, "I swear they'd be safe with me, but I understand."

"I know you would do your best," Queen Breha said. "I can't risk it. Not yet. Next time, we will look into it."

"You said that last time," Luke said.

"And I may say it again."

"You're sure you have to go?" Bail asked Ahsoka. "We could use your help here."

Ahsoka said, "I would love to stay, but my friends back in my universe need my help, too, and I owe them my life."

She took her leave of the rest then, allowing Anakin to say whatever goodbyes he did to the children he saw so rarely. Ahsoka would have a lot to think about when she saw her Leia again. Her Anakin didn't know he had a daughter, she felt certain. Vader would have hunted the Organas down if he suspected the truth.

This Anakin met her outside. She'd learned to recognize the aura around him, dark tendrils always creeping close by. As a girl she'd simply thought the shadows were a part of who he was. Now she knew what he could become if that darkness took him. Even so, this Anakin had not yet fallen. If he radiated grief and regret as he once again left his children in the loving care of the people who'd raised them, those were the emotions of anyone who'd been forced by circumstance into the same hard decision.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked him, falling into step at his side as they made for his ship. They walked in silence until the hatch closed behind them.

"Breha wants only the best for the kids. Sometimes I think she doesn't believe I want the same thing. She'll let me train them here when I can. She's fine with it when I join Bail on a mission with one or both of them. She's never let me take them somewhere without him." He ran a hand though his hair. It was thinning, Ahsoka noticed for the first time. "She's afraid that one day her children will go off on some foolish quest with me and she'll never see them again."

"You wouldn't take them away from her." She took the copilot's chair without asking. Anakin, any Anakin, always loved flying more than almost anything.

"I would. But I can't. It's not fair to them, and not fair to their parents."

"And you?"

"Nothing was ever fair for me."

* * *

He received an alert when they came out of hyperspace after their first jump. "Oh no."

"How bad?"

"It's not great. We've got a foothold on Donovia. The Republic has sent in more troops. I was headed there when we got your call."

She checked the star chart. "It's a short hop from here. We can be there in a few hours."

"I said I was taking you to Lothal."

"Lothal will still be there tomorrow." She programmed in their new destination into the navicomputer. "Let's go."

* * *

Most of her fighting over the last several years had been small-scale battles, close up with her opponents. The Rebellion wasn't ready for a major offensive yet. They satisfied themselves with raids, short strikes, and the occasional mercy mission aiding worlds embargoed by the Empire. She foresaw a future where their forces could make a true strike on the Emperor's armies, but those days were still far ahead.

The new Separatists were more advanced. Warships surrounded them as they came out of hyperspace over the planet, and to her amazement, Anakin told her they belonged to the anti-Republic forces.

"It's so strange to hear you say that."

"I know. It gets me too sometimes. But this is the galaxy we live in. The Republic is run by a dictator. We have to stand against him. Nothing else matters."

Ahsoka disagreed with that. Freedom mattered. The lives of the innocent mattered, and they didn't care which side was bombing them when they were dying. These Separatists were far more concerned with civilian lives than the droid armies she remembered. They kept the fighting away from colonized areas of the world.

Anakin took them in close.

Her mouth went dry. "They're clones."

"Yeah. Same army."

"But the clones..." She tried to find the words. They had been controlled and coerced. There were chips in their heads. They were growing old. "In my universe, most of them were decommissioned years ago. Rex and a few of the others managed to get their control chips out before they were activated."

"He did that here. But the rest are still fighting. They don't know any other life."

"And you're fighting them."

"When we have to."

She sat back. Not all of the armor was clone-design. She saw some of the more typical stormtrooper uniforms. Anakin nudged her. "Those are the newer recruits. They volunteered, or had to volunteer."

She'd undertaken plenty of attacks on stormtroopers. "Do you let them surrender?"

"Wouldn't it be nice if more of them did?"

He brought their ship down behind friendly lines. As soon as they stepped out into the heavy rain, he was approached by a harried-looking Antidian calling him General and begging for his help. Ahsoka got an absent nod. Anakin said, "Commander Tano will be joining me."

"I don't get to be a General too? You were a General by twenty."

"Show me what you can do first."

A few days ago, she'd gone into battle against him. Now they waded in side by side, lightsabers lit, glittering in the rain together like twin beacons. She was used to fighting alone. She'd sparred with Kanan and Ezra a little, but there had been few opportunities to fight together, and no time to fall into a shared pattern with either. Anakin was a different story. Another Anakin, another universe, but moments into the fray, it was as though they'd never parted, their laser blades cutting a mirrored swathe through the enemy like rhymed lines of poetry. At the sight of them, their own troops regained heart in the fight.

It took hours to throw back the enemy. The sheer exhilaration of fighting made the time feel like minutes. The Republic forces withdrew even as the clouds parted for a rare respite.

After, Anakin walked through the encampment to check on their people. Ahsoka had found a cloak against the cold evening drawing on, and stayed beside him as a shadow, barely noticed by the men and women greeting their General.

"I could introduce you. They saw you fighting."

"Better you don't. I'm not staying."

"Right."

He met with his commanders on the muddy field. The orbiting ships said the Republic ships were leaving the system.

"That's good," she said, but their faces said otherwise. "But it's not. Why?"

"They've withdrawn to regroup. They'll come back and bombard the planet from the air."

"There are people living here."

"That doesn't matter. Ryloth was practically obliterated after they rebelled. The Republic didn't care."

A shiver went through her. The Republic she remembered would never have considered such a thing. The clones would be horrified and would protest that order. But this wasn't her Republic. This was the Empire under a different name. "Can we evacuate them?"

"Not in time. We can get as many as possible underground to safety."

* * *

She watched from the viewscreen as dozens of warships appeared out of hyperspace. Without so much as a pause, they began firing all weapons onto the planet in a dread rain of vermillion and crimson, the bright flashes broken up only by the explosions unleashed behind the bombers passing over the landscape.

He'd told her. She hadn't wanted to believe him. "How did the Republic turn into this?"

"The Chancellor showed his true colors. He'd gathered enough support in the Senate to push through permanent war powers. The first Separatists were crushed within days, while the clones attacked and murdered thousands of Jedi."

She knew this story. "But some got away."

"Some did. We don't meet in groups. We organize by transmission, using couriers and messages via our allies. The droid army was almost wiped out, but the infrastructure was in place, and the star systems that hated the Republic weren't going to rejoin just because the Separatist leadership was dead. We've used what we could."

"I've got reason to believe Emperor Palpatine, I mean, the Chancellor, was behind the original Separatists, and used them to stoke his own goals in the Senate."

"We think that, too. We've had to rebuild from the ground up. But we never stopped fighting."

The surface of the planet was awash in laser blasts. Thousands of the colonists hid deep inside the mines under the surface, praying for the horror to end.

"Do we have the firepower to attack them now?" She already knew the answer. The moment the evacuation had completed, most of their fleet had withdrawn. They'd come back when the bombing was over and the Republic abandoned the planet for good.

"We can go," he said, reading the understanding on her face. "You have an appointment to keep on Lothal."

* * *

She knew the location of the old Jedi Temple, and in this universe, the Empire or their equivalent hadn't come to dig into its secrets. The site was empty.

Completely empty.

"The Temple was here."

"I won't ask if you're sure. Is it possible it was never established here?"

She walked around, knowing with her feet where she'd stood, where she'd had her terrible vision, and seen Master Yoda as they'd fled after. The Force echoed here, but not as the great power she'd once felt. There had been a Temple here in this timeline. It had fallen long ago, dragging all its secrets into the same shadowy fate.

"It's gone."

Anakin closed his eyes, reaching out with the Force. He sensed the same thing she did. "I'm sorry, Snips. We can try again on Malachor."

"I don't think there was ever a door there. Ezra pulled me out of a bad moment, and I went back in through what I thought was the same moment. The Jedi Temple was the way to travel into the World Between Worlds. The Sith Temple was only an exit."

The Emperor had almost forced his way in via dark magic. She didn't dare try the same and risk destroying the fabric of the World itself. Worse, and it was worse because it was a private fear and thus beneath her to let it rule her decision: she did not want to return to Malachor with Anakin. Vader had almost killed her there.

"Ahsoka?"

"I guess I'm staying." The enormity hit her like a blow. She hadn't accepted this place as real. She was taking a vacation into another life, and nothing that happened here really mattered. Until now.

Anakin drew her into a hug. She'd been through too much turmoil throughout her life to panic now, and she'd lost far too many people to steep herself in grief over her wasted chance of ever seeing her friends in that universe again. She didn't need a hug to make things better.

But it was nice.

* * *

She'd been tempted to linger on Lothal. There would be an Ezra in this world, one unaware of his own powers and potential, one who still had his parents and his innocence. She wouldn't take the risk. If he was happy in this life, the best repayment of her debt to his other self would be to leave him alone now. She and Anakin departed the planet as they'd come, unremarked and of no interest to anyone living there.

Anakin set their course. "I can take you back to Alderaan after I rendezvous with my division and check in."

"I don't have any need to go back to Alderaan unless you want to use me as an excuse to go visit the twins." She sat quietly, not looking at him, her gaze fixed on the sudden blue of the hyperspace field around them. Without any chance of going back, her future was here. She couldn't be the Fulcrum. She had to find a new role. "Unless you object, I'd prefer to stay by your side until I get my bearings."

He nodded, a conflict of emotions crossing his face. "I won't say that I'm sad you're staying. It was awful losing you last time. I don't know how I would handle it happening again."

She remembered her slow crawl of grief when she finally accepted than Anakin was dead with all the rest of the Jedi, and the renewed pain when she allowed herself to understand what he had become after. Her soul still processed that new knowledge and that fresh loss, captured together in the sight of his black helmet outlined in the hellish red of his lightsaber. The man beside her confused and delayed her mind's digestion of the bitter truth. He wasn't her Anakin. Her Anakin was gone, as much as it hurt to admit. She'd lost him twice over.

"You'd find a way to survive."

They rejoined his fleet the next day, taking turns to sleep in the tiny pull-out bunk behind the seats. Anakin introduced her as Commander Tano, and no one blinked. He sent word to Bail via an intermediary, and received a reply through a different contact three days later: "I am sorry. You are always welcome here."

She closed the recorded transmission. Anakin waited for her. He'd received his own transmission from Bail.

She said, "Tell me what I can do to help."

"You don't know enough about the political situation here to lead your own battalion yet."

"I can learn. I started out alone in my universe. In this one, I have you. I'm already ahead."

As she had when she was a Padawan, she followed in Anakin's wake and paid close attention to the big picture and the small details. To tell the truth, she hadn't paid such close attention when she'd been a kid. She knew better now. She listened to the words he said and the words he didn't.

The Separatist forces held several strongholds in Hutt Space. They returned to their bases, reprovisioned, and exchanged information. She sat in on planning meetings, offering her own strategic skills and keeping her mind open. She could fly a ship, and she could fight, and what she didn't know, she could ask Anakin about in private. The more difficult task was unlearning what she knew of her own galaxy. Without the Empire, the playing field changed, as did the players. Familiar names whisked by during briefings or were glimpsed on flimsy reports. Did Gungi and Katooni rescue her from Hondo in this universe, or was she only another face from the Temple? In the other universe, Kanan had remembered her from their childhood but that didn't mean Caleb remembered her in this one. She wasn't sure how much Anakin told the other Jedi about her, if he told them she'd come out of hiding or told them the truth or told them nothing.

"I told Rex," he said one night as they were encamped after a successful battle. They had pitched a single tent and set their bedrolls right next to each other like in the old days when she'd been spooked by every unfamiliar noise and he'd had to wake up over and over to tell her to go back to sleep. Noises didn't scare her now. The comfort stayed the same. "He's confused but happy. We can try to rendezvous with his team in a couple of rotations."

"I can't wait to see him."

"Did he make it in your universe?"

"He did. I wasn't sure for a long time." She told him how her messages had been intercepted, and how it felt to see her old friend again. Anakin listened, his face unreadable.

"You had a crush on him," he said at last.

"I was a teenager. I had fourteen point five crushes a week. You were technically still a teenager when we met. Tell me you didn't do the same thing."

"When you and I met, I was already married."

There had been enough clues to make her wonder long before she'd met Luke. Children weren't proof of an official marriage, and perhaps it had been more of an understood marriage than a legal one. Enough words had been said and enough left unsaid for her to know how things had ended.

"Did you tell me? The Anakin I knew never said a word."

"No. I told Obi-Wan. He got us to safety right before everything went to hell. Sometimes I wonder if things would have been different had I stayed to fight."

A black mask, a black cloak, a red lightsaber. "You'd have died."

"Then I suppose I'm glad I left."

"I am. I'm very glad you left. I'm glad you're alive."

He didn't say anything, but in the dim light, she saw him smile.

* * *

The transmission arrived at their base with a broken frequency, crackling and hard to see. "Under attack," said the message. "Send extraction team."

Ahsoka knew the system, if not the strict details. Rex's team had been deployed on a mercy mission, the same as the Rebellion undertook from time to time to relieve the worst of the pressures of life under the Empire's rule. Boonta was in more open rebellion than most worlds, and the Republic had embargoed the entire system. Rex's team slipped in under their watch to bring aid and relief supplies. Now they'd been spotted.

Anakin said, "We can get the fleet there in three days."

Ahsoka stared at the star chart. "We can have a small extraction force there tomorrow."

"Negative. We need to go in with more firepower, or we'll wind up with two teams needing help."

"Rex could be dead in three days."

He wanted to go. As ever, Anakin's heart warred with his common sense, and she had to admit, common sense said to wait. But Rex needed them. Ahsoka said, "If it goes bad, you can blame me. I say we go. Order the reinforcements to come in three days. They can meet us, or they can bring back our corpses."

"Get your gear."

She spread her arms, showing the hilts of her lightsabers. "I'm already packed."

* * *

They took their two fastest transport ships. Anakin piloted the smaller, more maneuverable transport, and Ahsoka the larger ship, splitting the strike team between them. Nerves ate at her as she flew. There'd been no further word. They might arrive to find their friends already annihilated.

"General," asked Commander Lettz, "what's our ETA?"

"Not for another three hours, and I'm not a General."

Lettz shrugged. "All the Jedi are."

"We shouldn't be. Lightsabers and telekinesis aren't a good basis for military leadership." She hadn't thought of using 'we' in a long time when it came to the Jedi, not since the last time she and Anakin worked together. "Besides, when I was in the GAR, I was a Commander like the rest of the Padawans."

"Those are the children?" she asked.

"Yes."

"With respect, Commander, you're older than I am, and you have an excellent grasp of tactics. I'd be honored to serve under you when you do get your own command."

"Thank you," she said, a sudden fluster of worry growing. By rights, yes, she should have her own command, her own troops, fighting her own corner of the war. She'd picked up enough of the basics of this galaxy to deal with the changes, and she knew enough from her own galaxy to use those skills here. Anakin's presence was a help and a kindness, not a necessity. The thought of leaving him again filled her with dread. She'd left before, and everything had gone wrong.

They came out of hyperspace at the edge of the Boonta system, hoping to approach the planet by stealth. Their ships crept closer, killing the thrust from time to time to simulate random asteroids on the enemy's sensors.

It wasn't enough. A blast shook Ahsoka's ship. Her hands flew over the controls. Engine damage. Of course it was engine damage. "Anakin, we're going to put down on the planet. We'll meet you on the surface at Rex's position."

"Negative. Give me your position and I'll set down at your location."

She cut the commlink. "Everyone hold on." It had been a long time since she'd had to land under these conditions, but she was a lot older now, and she'd learned from the best. She brought it in hard, evading her pursuers as best she could. "Everybody out! Grab what you can but don't stay to grab more!"

Sure enough, the moment they were off the ship, one of the fighters got a lucky hit and blasted it.

"Right," Ahsoka said. "So much for the extraction. Come on." She led them under cover. Lettz had the naviblinker. "How far out are we?"

"Five clicks from their last known location."

"Then that's where we head. General Skywalker will be headed that way."

They made their way as fast as they could, keeping out of sight of passing patrols. Ahsoka risked two transmissions as they went, keeping the commlink open in case Rex responded. There was nothing, and her hopes fell the closer they got, bottoming out as they arrived at Rex's last known position and found nothing but the remains of a battle, and a charred pile that she chose not to inspect too closely. The last transmission they received would be the last they ever heard from him.

Lettz picked up chatter on a Republic frequency. "There's a skirmish the next pass over, one click south. It could be General Skywalker's team."

"We should go," Ahsoka said.

Blasts and shouts rang out as they got closer. Ahsoka's team readied their weapons. They might not have come in time to extract Rex and his men, but they could still be of some help now. She took a long look on her macrobinoculars and almost cried out in joy. Anakin's troops had landed on the other side of the valley, and they had found Rex's team. The pair of them fought together. There was a squadron between Ahsoka's position and theirs.

"We should go join them." She lit her lightsabers.

The thrill of battle consumed her, sheer joy taking hold as she danced and flew, every motion of her arms and legs extended by the hot reach of her blades. This was a dangerous passion. Master Windu had warned the younglings of the enticement of the Dark Side, sliding inside your own desire. He'd found a means to tame the passion, harness the pleasure of battle, but he'd taught only a rare few that trick, knowing the temptation would be too much for many Jedi.

Ahsoka was not a Jedi.

She kept her troops in her peripheral gaze as she fought, moving them as a group through the enemy forces. Ahead, Anakin and Rex fought, their own teams merged into a knot of fighters. Ahsoka drove her people like a wedge through the surrounding foes, and saw their friends push their way towards them. They met in the middle. Rex paused only a moment to nod to her, no time for the complicated emotions he surely felt seeing her here now.

She reached Anakin. "Is this everyone?"

"I think so. We need to make our way back to the ships."

"Mine's gone. We have to take yours."

"That way," Anakin said, and now she was beside him where she fought best, defending their troops. Her blood sang with battle passion. Her body moved through each motion without thought. Anakin had her back, the flow of his fight as familiar to her as her own heartbeat. Warmth flooded through her, the purest joy she'd ever known. She could stay like this forever.

"Come on," Lettz said, blasting her way forward. Rex waved his men over. Anakin and Ahsoka held their rear as they retreated towards the second transport. There were still plenty of enemy troops, but they had seen the destruction caused by the lightsabers, and were holding back. No one wanted to be the next to fall under a laser sword. The pair took the break and ran for it.

The ship was guarded by two of Anakin's team. The survivors of Rex's team boarded, Rex staying outside as the extraction teams hurried aboard. Ahsoka glanced at the transport, heart sinking. The ship would never take off with all of them.

Anakin looked, and she read the same thing on his face. He met her eyes, and gave a careful shrug, asking her. She nodded back.

"Commander Rex," he said, "Board the ship and get these people out of here. We'll hold your exit."

"There's room," Rex said. "We'll go together."

"There's not. I've got reinforcements coming soon. We'll be fine." Blasts came closer. "Go. That's an order."

"With all due respect, I don't have to follow your orders."

"We'll be fine," Ahsoka said. "We need you to lead the others to safety. In a couple of days, we'll meet up for caf and a long talk. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that." The hatch closed.

Anakin gestured for her to go left as he went right. They deflected blasts away from the transport until the ship was clear, then changed their strategy to a retreat of their own. That wasn't as easy as she'd hoped. Without the support of the rest of their team, the Republic troops advanced on their position, cutting off the way she'd thought they could retreat. They were backing against a cliff wall, which gave them a side they didn't have to defend, but no exits.

"I always figured I'd go out like this," he said to her, blocking a blaster bolt headed for her head.

"In a hopeless battle with overwhelming odds?" She cut down a trooper who got too close to him.

"That it would be your fault somehow. This was your plan."

"It was a good plan. We got Rex and his men out. It's the follow-through that's giving me trouble."

The thing about fighting two against two hundred was that the pair of them had to be lucky every time. The enemy had to get lucky once. A bolt hit Ahsoka on her left arm, burning her. She bit back her shout of pain, dropping the lightsaber in that hand. Anakin came closer, moving to defend them both.

"Ahsoka?"

She reached out with the Force, grabbing the doused 'saber and clipping it to her belt for safekeeping.

"I'll be okay. We have to get out of here."

He glanced up. "I'll throw you." It was her only warning. He picked her up with the Force and tossed her upwards. As she rose, her stomach doing flips, she saw the ledge he'd seen, and used her own powers to pull herself to safety. She doused her second lightsaber then leaned over. Anakin still fought below. He glanced up, and jumped.

Ahsoka reached out with her powers, pulling him up with her. For a moment, they stared at each other, adrenaline flooding through both. Part of her wanted to go back into the fray, pain and all. Part of her wanted to push him up against the side of the cliff and rut, her blood high with the fight. She pushed away both impulses, the fearless and the shameful both.

"This way," she said, pulling him into a crevasse in the cliffside, which led deep inside, opening into a small space built with a millennium of drips into a rocky pool to one edge. Outside, they heard the enemy forces shouting to search for them. The two of them used their powers to block the mouth of the cave with boulders. Then they waited in the darkness, listening as the troops ascended the mountain searching for them. Every sound echoed, from the soldiers outside to the thump of their hearts beating in here. They didn't dare speak.

Anakin examined Ahsoka's wound by feel, binding the injury for her in the dark. mindful of the pain. She dug out a few painkillers stowed in her pack, swallowing them roughly in her dry mouth, not ready to trust the water. Hours passed until the noises outside died away. Night was falling, and the still air inside their small cave grew chilly and damp.

"We should stay here tonight," he said, the first words either had said aloud in hours. "It's the best shelter we'll find." He used his lightsaber to heat up a few rocks, which helped with the chill and offered a dim light. He sat next to her again, sharing body heat under one thin survival blanket that popped and crinkled with every movement. "How's your arm?"

"It'll be okay. How mad are you?"

"Mad?"

"You wanted to wait for the rest of the fleet. If we had, we wouldn't be in this situation."

"And Rex's whole team would be dead now. They were pinned down when we got there. It was the right call. Sure, we're in a pinch now, but we've been in worse. I'd rather be stuck here with you in a cave than be safe back at base knowing we could have done something." He wrapped an arm around her, keeping them both warm as she lay her head against his. She should have expected he would consider things that way. He always did.

Ahsoka turned her head, pressing a kiss against his cheek, but the angle was off, and her lips met the corner of his mouth. Anakin shivered. Before she could pull away to mumble an apology or make a joke, he angled his neck and pressed his mouth against hers. He didn't push, didn't demand, offering the softest pressure possible. She'd taken a handful of lovers over the years: a few brief flings, a few warm tumbles with friends. No kisses she'd ever shared with any of them had been this tender, or this wistful. She sensed a longing from him, and a desire he'd buried even to himself. Her pulse raced as though they were back to back in the battle again, dancing through combat together.

Anakin pulled his lips away, resting his forehead against hers. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have."

She took his face in her good hand, and instead of words, she kissed him back, full and rich and wanting. His mouth opened under hers with a sigh. She wondered if anyone had kissed him in the last sixteen years, or if he'd marinated in his own guilt and regret. The latter two raised up inside him again, spilling into her mind like rain. He broke the second kiss as suddenly and sorrowfully as he had the first.

"We can't," he said, more to himself than to her. "I'm supposed to take care of you. I'm not supposed to feel this way about you."

The confession stunned her more than the first kiss had, and filled her with a deeper desire than the second. "What do you feel?"

He wouldn't meet her eyes. "Something I shouldn't."

The old lessons nudged at her. They'd both been taught for years that attachments led to danger, and Jedi must avoid letting their emotions rule them. Now their teachers were gone. Ahsoka had decided long before she crossed into this universe that the Jedi who remained had to make up their own minds about who they would be and what dangers they chose to face.

"I wouldn't love you the way I do if you didn't always lead with your heart." At the word 'love,' she felt him shiver again. She kissed him once more, and felt him melt into her. He touched her face with trembling, awed fingertips. His lips brushed her neck as he stroked one lek, and he sucked in a loud breath.

She froze, her pulse racing as the sound of Vader's life support echoed in her ears. He stopped kissing her, stopped moving, aware of her sudden fear if not the reason behind it. "We should..." She stopped his doubt with another kiss, shoving the momentary distraction from her mind.

"Anakin, I'm cold."

He kept her warm.

* * *

They stayed where they were. They had a few rations packs between them, and no better place to wait for their pickup. The small cave warmed to a tolerable temperature between their body heat and the little warmth they could generate by warming the rocks with their lightsabers. The water tasted fresh and didn't make them ill when they gave in to thirst.

The air was thick with the smell of sex.

No longer bound by their past, and with limited other options for passing the time, their exploration of this new facet of their relationship filled the dark hours. She'd slept with humans, though not any male humans, and he'd only taken one lover before her. Neither had experience with another Jedi. The comforting touch of his mind against hers as he slid into her for the first time caused a deep frisson of pleasure she'd never imagined.

Mind to mind, they explored each other, learning by feel what was enjoyable and what was not. He tasted her skin with slow intent, spending an age on each knee before making his way up between them with wet, lingering kisses. The first cold metal touch of his hand against the warmth of her inner thigh made her hold back a cry, which she let free as a hiss when his warm, human finger probed inside her, stroking her stimulus spot. The metal hand reached for her, inexorable pressure spreading her open before the probing finger was joined by his curious tongue while she wriggled and urged him on with frantic whispers.

They kept as quiet as they could in case the enemy came back searching for them. Ahsoka wasn't sure what she'd do if they were discovered like this, tangled together, biting their moans into each other's flesh to muffle the sounds. Her teeth had broken the skin of his shoulder once, and the unexpected pain had slammed pleasure through him so hard he'd passed out.

It wasn't perfect. The floor of the cave was cold and rocky, shoving sharp stones into knees and backs, even with her cloak spread beneath them. Each time he entered her anew, discomfort made her squirm until her body eased and opened, the hurt fading into bliss. Anakin didn't know enough about her species to know where to touch her without constant direction. She knew enough about his that she had to remain careful while they coupled, focusing on not breaking his spine as she writhed in her release. Her arm ached when the painkillers wore off.

She wouldn't have traded it for anything.

* * *

The commlink lit up three days to the minute since they'd left the base. "General Skywalker? Commander Tano? This is _Raider II_. Do you copy?"

Anakin took the commlink. "We copy, _Raider II_. What's the situation around the planet?"

"We've started to engage the enemy fleet. There should be enough of a distraction to get you."

"Land near our signal."

They looked at each other. Clothes sorted and their very few supplies gathered, they were ready. Ahsoka bent in for a kiss, which Anakin returned, both vibrating with the excitement of returning to the fleet. They climbed up the rest of the way to the top of the mountainside, making their way with care. Her injury would need more attention and they both sported bruises that had been acquired enjoyably but now ached on the climb.

A shuttle landed shortly after they ascended the summit. The shuttle's hatch popped open, and Rex poked his head out. "Get in. We're under fire."

She took his hand as they boarded. Anakin was right behind her, shutting the hatch behind himself. Rex pulled her into a deep hug, which she returned happily. She'd seen the Rex of her own universe not so long ago. This Rex hadn't seen her in years, and his eyes were wet when he pulled away. Up front, the pilot was already lifting off.

"It's good to see you again. I buried you," he said, wiping his face with his hand.

"Thank you for that kindness."

He turned to Anakin. "Are you both all right?"

"Ahsoka's injured. We got a little banged up in the fight. Nothing serious." Anakin glanced at her and she nodded. All of their scrapes and contusions came from the battle as far as anyone needed to know, and if her thighs were still sticky from this morning's leisurely activities, no one needed to know that, either.

"Right," he said. "We'll get you checked out when we get back to base. Oh, I've got word. Senator Organa is paying us a visit in a few rotations."

"That's great news," Ahsoka said. "Is he bringing his children along?"

"I hope so. Haven't seen either of those tykes since they were about this high," Rex said, holding his hand at his chest. "Those kids would've been about your age back when you and I first met, now that I think about it. Seems like yesterday." His eyes were wet again. "Sorry."

"It's all right," Ahsoka said, and hugged him again.

"None of it is all right. You were a little girl, and we should have taken better care of you."

"I'm here now, Rex. That's what matters."

Their ship broke atmosphere as the rest of their reinforcement fleet began to jump away. Within a few moments, the blue of hyperspace burst into view. She took a seat next to Anakin, the first comfortable place she'd sat in days. Rex took the chair to the other side. She wanted to rest her head on Anakin's shoulder, but he leaned forward and was talking to their pilot.

They were going home.

* * *

Medical droids treated injury without passing judgement. Her arm was cleaned and bound with bacta patches, just as the nicks on her knees from the sharp cave stones and the bruises on her hips from Anakin's strong hands were treated. She was offered a contraceptive injection as a routine medical service with the rest of her treatment, and she accepted although she doubted the need. The droid didn't ask why. The droid wouldn't ask Anakin about the imprint of her teeth or the scratches she'd left on his back save to examine him and determine if he needed an antibiotic ointment.

She rejoined him after, falling into step beside him. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. How's your arm?"

She bent her elbow and wriggled her fingers. "Much better."

"Great. Get some sleep and you'll be good as new." They reached his quarters. "I'm going to take the longest shower of my life and sleep for about three days. Good night." He went into his room and shut the door, leaving Ahsoka there in the corridor.

She didn't lead with her heart. She didn't show her feelings on her face. She also didn't want anyone else seeing what she couldn't keep off her features right now. She took a breath, then she stabbed the open button on his quarters with her finger, stepping inside before he could stop her or she could reconsider.

"Hi," she said.

He didn't look at her. "Go get some sleep, Snips. I'm exhausted."

She folded her arms. "I didn't get much sleep over the last few days either, but you're not that tired."

"Too tired for this argument. I'll see you tomorrow."

The tips of her fingers tingled, growing numb with an anger she wasn't prepared for. "If you dare say it was a mistake..."

"Wasn't it?" He looked at her, and she read the self-loathing all over him. "I swore to take care of you when we met, not take advantage of you."

"You didn't take advantage of me. I'm thirty-three, not thirteen." She watched him blanch, and cursed herself for making him think of her as a little girl again. "We're both adults, Anakin. If we'd met for the first time a month ago, you would think of me as your equal. And as a matter of fact, we did meet then, and it's time you stopped acting like I'm some child. I'm not the girl you knew, and even if I were, you should know better."

"If we'd really met for the first time a month ago, you'd be some stranger I barely remembered from the Temple like the rest of the survivors. I wouldn't constantly be worried about you, or be worried about hurting you."

"You're not going to kill me."

"I did kill you!" he shouted. "I got you killed once. I can't lose you again like that, and I can't protect you, not if I can't protect you from myself."

He was destroying himself with his own guilt. He would never completely separate out the girl he'd known from the woman she was here and now. He'd set his qualms aside for a while in the darkness of their hiding place. Now that they were back in their real lives, among their friends, anticipating a visit with his children, all his doubts about hurting her came roaring back.

"I can take care of myself, Anakin. I can defend my own life, and I can protect my own heart, even from you. Can you please trust me?"

He lowered his head, shaking it, not so much denying her words as fighting the demons inside his own head. But she'd heard his thoughts when they'd made love, and she knew he was not under their sway.

"Anakin?"

"There's something painful inside your head when you look at me. I felt it when you first arrived, and I read shadows of it in your mind when we were together. I can feel it now. I trust you, Ahsoka. Please trust me. Tell me why you're sad whenever you see me." He'd heard her thoughts, too, there in the dark, although if he had to ask the meaning, he hadn't listened in to the worst secrets.

"I'm not sad when I see you." She stepped closer, watching him close himself off as she approached. "You're my best friend, and I love you."

"Something about me hurts you. I think it's because you know deep down that I got my Ahsoka killed by my mistakes, and if you stay with me, I'll get you killed someday too. It doesn't matter how we feel about each other. It doesn't even matter that you used to be my Padawan. We both know I'm dangerous for you to be around, and that makes you sad when you let yourself think about it."

"That's not it. Not at all." Now it was her turn to look away. She'd set aside her other life, and all that she'd known. She was afraid, not of Anakin, but of what it might do to him to find out what he'd become along another path. "You want the full truth?"

He nodded, and she felt another flash of sorrow from him. Up until this moment, he'd believed she always had shared the full truth with him. She resolved to do so from now on, no matter what the price.

"In the other universe, in that other life, my Anakin fell."

"You told me."

She looked at him, fighting back the same tears that she'd shed when she had first discovered the truth for herself. "The Anakin Skywalker I knew didn't fall in battle. He fell to the Dark Side. I came through the World Between Worlds because my friend pulled me to safety from what should have been my last battle against a Sith Lord who used to be my master."

She watched the knowledge move over his face. The shadows she'd always known within him crowded close by, dark chaperones whispering into his ears. "You're saying I tried to kill you. Not by accident, not by a bad order given by mistake. I went to the Dark Side and intended to strike you down."

"No." As he'd spoken, she finally understood. "I am telling you that another Anakin Skywalker walked another path. He was my friend and I let him down when I should have been there at his side. Maybe I would have changed his mind at the critical moment, or maybe he'd have killed me then. I'll never know, and I will always carry that question with me, and I will always wonder when I look at you and I see what a good man the Anakin I knew could have been."

He closed his eyes. "I could fall to the Dark Side, too. I almost did once before."

"But I wasn't with you then, and neither was your Ahsoka. I'm not leaving your side again, Anakin. Not ever. I swear."

"I can't agree to that. What if I fall like your Anakin did?"

"I'll catch you."

"And we'll fight like you did before when your Anakin almost killed you." His face grew pained again.

"If we must, and it will be my most terrible duty to cut you down if we do."

That drew a smile from him, reluctant as a sun in fog. "You think you could?"

"I do." She drew her lightsabers and lit them. "Defend yourself," she said, giving him a moment to understand and to reach for his own.

She leapt at him, her blows aimed for sparring. They hadn't spent a lot of her educational time with him in direct lightsaber training, but they'd done enough for the old patterns to reassert themselves. Even in the tight space of his quarters, their movements flowed against one another, mirroring and parting. She knew where he would move, and he anticipated her every motion.

It was like dancing, fast and brilliant with flashing lights as their blades met in lightning-fast blows. Her blood sang in her veins, thumping to the patter of her heart. She watched the sorrow and the pain work themselves out of Anakin, watched the past fall away from his soul, leaving him with the thrilling, simple enjoyment of their mock battle.

They spun together, faces lit with the glow of their locked blades. His face was wreathed in sweat, glowing in a happiness she could feel, as she felt his breath against her skin. She turned off her lightsabers, dropping them to a chair. He doused his and dropped it to the floor.

She dragged him in for a long kiss as he backed her against the bulkhead, their minds touching, need driving them. They didn't bother removing more of their clothes than necessary. Ahsoka let out a moan as he entered her, feeling the tight squeeze of her own body around him, tingling as he stroked every nerve she had inside her welcoming sheath. There was no pain, only shuddery, wet heat as they found their rhythm.

In the darkness they'd used the dull glow of the heated rocks to see one another. In the glare of his quarters she could see every flicker of his eyes, watching her with naked adoration. In the clear light of the truth finally out between them, she offered him the full depth of her emotions written on her own face and shining into his mind amid the waves of their shared pleasure.

This was going to be messy, and it wasn't going to be easy. They had too much history, and too little, and their friends would not understand. But this was Anakin, always her Anakin no matter what, and she would know him in all lives, would want him in all timelines, would love him in all universes.

She lit with joy crashing through her body, and he followed with his own joy filling her like starlight, and they were replete.

* * *

end


End file.
